Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play portrays a grungy world being infiltrated by Chaos magic and cultists. Beneath the dirty streets of Renaissance cities are the tunnels of the Skaven, ratmen, while in the highest halls of power leaders and rulers corrupted by Chaos plot the downfall of the kingdoms of men.

Despite the high stakes, PCs start out as common men and women, many with simple jobs like grave robber or rate catcher. An entire party of adventurers may have no casters and consist entirely of day laborers and peasants. Despite their possible humble beginnings, the PCs are the ones who will ultimately determine if mankind defeats Chaos or if bloodshed, madness, and mutation overrun the land.

While I enjoy the first edition, the second features what I consider to be a more balanced method for character creation. Character creation is a combination of choice and randomness. Players choose to play dwarfs, elves, halflings, or humans but randomly roll their starting career and characteristics. That starting career provides skills and talents and options to improve starting characteristics when spending experience points. These improvements are called advances.

A PC will work on finishing the advances for all the characteristics of his starting career. While the character may have traded being a peddler for being an adventurer, he continues to build on what he learned in his starting career until all advances are taken. He can then enter a new career from those listed as exits for his current one or for double the XP take any basic career provided it makes sense.

The Old World, the provided setting for WFRP, spatters muck and blood all over the PCs who dare to explore it. Disease, madness, Chaos, and monsters all threaten adventurers while behind city walls cultists worship foul gods and tunneling Skaven plot to overthrow mankind and spread their disease ridden society across the surface world.

Combat is dangerous, but a well equipped fighter has several ways to protect himself. Armor greatly reduces the damage of most blows. A second weapon or shield also always for a parry which can completely turn aside an attack. Experienced warriors may be trained in Dodge Blow which provides another option for avoiding a strike. However a hit that scores maximum damage allows a roll to hit again for even more damage. And when Wounds fall to 0 and more damage is inflicted, a point of Insanity is gained, and a roll on the critical table is required. The results range from temporary impairment to permanent maiming and even death.

Despite the rigors of the world, the adventurers are a cut above the rest of humanity. They have a handful of Fate Points, which can be spent to save themselves from otherwise certain doom. And each adventure they replenish Fortune Points, which can provide more options in combat and possibility turn a bad die roll their way.

Magic beckons in second edition with arcane, divine, and dark lore being three common examples. Priests have their own basic spell list and each god has his or her own list. Wizards cast from one of ten color colleges which are full of flavor ranging from the flames of the Lore of Fire to the transforming power of the Lore of Beasts. Miscast magic can cause accidents and invoke Chaos effects with a bad roll. Magic is cast with a handful of d10 rolls and the truly horrific mishaps only take place if you roll four of the same number. Many lower level spells can be cast with only one or two dice.

Existing adventures for WFRP are top notch, with the first edition Enemy Within campaign considered a classic by many GMs. I am nearly halfway through running Ashes of Middenheim and the campaign is a smashing success. My players, all D&D veterans, have not fought an orc or standard undead yet and it has been a wonderful change of pace for them to face cultists, mutated beastmen, and even a Chaos daemon while also working as detectives in the city.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay offers the Old World, a magical place of filth and fortune, madness and fate, and bold adventurers seizing the day or dying in the attempt. The game is fueled by an amazing rules engine that allows even the simplest peasant to defend themselves but truly equips the fighter for war. First edition was a delight and second edition is the modernized version. You cannot go wrong even if you perish in the sewers under Altdorf to the filthy blades and foul magic of the Skaven.

I really enjoyed the magic system in this 2nd edition of the game.
However, the organization of the rules could be tightened up (e.g. the "frightened" condition was found in 3 different places).
My players didn't enjoy the game that much: as beginning characters (1st career), their weapons skills were only about 35%. So they hit only about 1 round in 3. Even when they did hit, the Armor + Toughness values negated their damage about half the time. 5-6 rounds of "swing & whiff" made for pretty boring fights.

I remember playing exactly one game of WH 2e, and discovering that the heavily armored dwarf warrior was a much better (read = survivable) character than my quick-stepping elven thief. I took a hit, got badly injured, missed a lot, then took a second hit and died. He took hit after hit, ignored almost all the damage, and methodically cleaned up all the monsters one swing at a time...

Never played Warhammer again until the WarHammer Quest CRPG (got it for $2 on Steam). Played basically like I remember, but the magic made a huge difference. I'd like to see all the "bad stuff that can happen to a PC" rules, though, to graft them into my D&D campaign!

My players didn't enjoy the game that much: as beginning characters (1st career), their weapons skills were only about 35%. So they hit only about 1 round in 3. Even when they did hit, the Armor + Toughness values negated their damage about half the time. 5-6 rounds of "swing & whiff" made for pretty boring fights.

I remember playing exactly one game of WH 2e, and discovering that the heavily armored dwarf warrior was a much better (read = survivable) character than my quick-stepping elven thief. I took a hit, got badly injured, missed a lot, then took a second hit and died. He took hit after hit, ignored almost all the damage, and methodically cleaned up all the monsters one swing at a time...

Never played Warhammer again until the WarHammer Quest CRPG (got it for $2 on Steam). Played basically like I remember, but the magic made a huge difference. I'd like to see all the "bad stuff that can happen to a PC" rules, though, to graft them into my D&D campaign!

I would have thought your parry would be high due to Agility. And sneaking a real option for the same reason.

How did the dwarf do in cities dealing with criminals and dodging the watch?

There is so much more to Warhammer than just combat. My group really wants the Charm skill to be more successful.

My character, if I recall, got us the job at the village tavern, getting the mayor to hire a pair of unknowns, and pay us half up front (for supplies). Then we went into the woods, got into the first fight, and I died. I think I missed the first parry, took the hard hit, and things went downhill from there.

My character, if I recall, got us the job at the village tavern, getting the mayor to hire a pair of unknowns, and pay us half up front (for supplies). Then we went into the woods, got into the first fight, and I died. I think I missed the first parry, took the hard hit, and things went downhill from there.

Maybe your GM was unfamiliar with the rules. In 2nd edition you could have rerolled with a Fortune point and if you failed again survived the death blow by spending a Fate point. RAW your PC should not have died.

@rmcoen: I am sorry for what happened to your elf, but it is a *grim* world of *perilous* adventure.

I only played the game once, myself, as a teenager. I remember it more fondly, probably because I was an awesome dwarf.

I got a bunch of whfrp pdfs recently in a humble bundle, maybe I'll try making a character again.

With Fortune points and Fate points no character should die in the first combat. It is actually impossible unless you start with only 1 Fate point and die twice and miss your reroll with a Fortune point.

Character creation is interesting. Especially once you start thinking about what your next career might be.

My 2nd biggest issue with 2E was the deletion of the career classes (Warrior, Ranger, Rogue, Academic) in favor of a single monolithic starting career table. My first was the changes to the damage rules.

I really enjoyed the magic system in this 2nd edition of the game.
However, the organization of the rules could be tightened up (e.g. the "frightened" condition was found in 3 different places).
My players didn't enjoy the game that much: as beginning characters (1st career), their weapons skills were only about 35%. So they hit only about 1 round in 3. Even when they did hit, the Armor + Toughness values negated their damage about half the time. 5-6 rounds of "swing & whiff" made for pretty boring fights.

All out attack grants a +20 to the Weapon Skill roll, but you can't parry or dodge. I think entry level characters are meant to lean heavily on this maneuver, which makes sense. One of the first things that differentiates an experienced fighter from an expert is how often or not they open themselves up to attack. There are a lot of things you can do as a GM to keep pressure on the party and encourage players to resolve early encounters quickly, opting to go for all out attacks to push a resolution, rather than playing an individual encounter safe to get efficient defense.

I would have thought your parry would be high due to Agility. And sneaking a real option for the same reason.

How did the dwarf do in cities dealing with criminals and dodging the watch?

There is so much more to Warhammer than just combat. My group really wants the Charm skill to be more successful.

The damage mechanics strongly favour high toughness, armoured characters. The dwarf is basically invulnerable. He can just wade through a sea of opponents, and shrug off all of the damage, while the nimble character will eventually roll poorly on dodge.

In theory, the nimble character should take lots of damage, but only rarely, and the armoured character should take very little damage, very often. In practice, the armoured character takes no damage at all against most opponents. This is really my only complaint about the system, and is easily solved by making sure your story ISN'T about dwarves or heavily armoured knights except as rare NPCs. Encourage the players to be humans and expose them to the strangeness of the setting, rather than have them play a typical D&D group.

The damage mechanics strongly favour high toughness, armoured characters. The dwarf is basically invulnerable. He can just wade through a sea of opponents, and shrug off all of the damage, while the nimble character will eventually roll poorly on dodge.

In theory, the nimble character should take lots of damage, but only rarely, and the armoured character should take very little damage, very often. In practice, the armoured character takes no damage at all against most opponents. This is really my only complaint about the system, and is easily solved by making sure your story ISN'T about dwarves or heavily armoured knights except as rare NPCs. Encourage the players to be humans and expose them to the strangeness of the setting, rather than have them play a typical D&D group.

Extra damage (crit) depends on rolling a 10 for damage and then hitting again. If you parry this cannot happen. If you take the hit there is a 10% chance for the attacker to roll to attack again for another die of damage added to the rest of the damage. And if that rolls a 10 again the damage piles on. This damage will get through the toughest armor.

Of course I agree with you that if you're going to wade into combat you should be wearing armor and not just trying to dodge. The heavier the better normally unless you want to sneak up on someone.

I also agree that players shouldn't try to play a late edition D&D group. The system is Warhammer and doesn't work at all like D&D. You want to avoid getting hit if possible and if you do you want to try to absorb as much damage as you can. Fighting dirty is a great option of course.

All out attack grants a +20 to the Weapon Skill roll, but you can't parry or dodge. I think entry level characters are meant to lean heavily on this maneuver, which makes sense. One of the first things that differentiates an experienced fighter from an expert is how often or not they open themselves up to attack. There are a lot of things you can do as a GM to keep pressure on the party and encourage players to resolve early encounters quickly, opting to go for all out attacks to push a resolution, rather than playing an individual encounter safe to get efficient defense.

My opinion is not to suggest this. Parry and dodge are tools characters should use after every attempted hit in my opinion. And use a Fortune point to get another parry if needed. If you force a miss by parry, the attack cannot do extra damage. Avoiding damage is, of course, the way to avoid spending Fate points and eventually dying.

I also hope GMs study the adventures and see how many opponents are not plate armored knights with 2 Attacks. Let the characters fight some dirty bandits and cook mutants so they don't die. And use lots of other skills and non-combat encounters along the way.

My opinion is not to suggest this. Parry and dodge are tools characters should use after every attempted hit in my opinion. And use a Fortune point to get another parry if needed. If you force a miss by parry, the attack cannot do extra damage. Avoiding damage is, of course, the way to avoid spending Fate points and eventually dying.

I also hope GMs study the adventures and see how many opponents are not plate armored knights with 2 Attacks. Let the characters fight some dirty bandits and cook mutants so they don't die. And use lots of other skills and non-combat encounters along the way.

Parrying and dodging keep a character safe, but as mentioned above, starting characters are usually going to miss based on their raw WS. As a good storyteller, a GM should be creating tough choices for the players such that they are more willing to take risks in the current fight in order to end it fast and not have to deal with the consequences of a long drawn out fight.

Imagine the thugs in front of you are preventing you from fleeing from the larger gang that’s coming to kill you, you’re probably not gonna have a great time by playing this fight super safe and eventually overcoming them. In order to have any hope of survival, you need to take risks now in this fight in order to end it fast enough that you can escape the larger threat that’s coming. WFRP should be about these kinds of desperate dilemmas.

Both of you bring up good point. There is so much more to Warhammer than straight combat and so much more to combat than just standing around hacking at your opponent. I agree the system provides lots of options and strategies.

There is much more to WHFRP, but you will likely fail even more at that than in combat. There is no gang up bonus for a skill check! The setting should be grim and perilous, and indeed does this very well. Unfortunately the 2nd ed system is just grim to play, to the point of dreading to roll the dice (maybe that was the point).
I recall a time playing death of the reik where players literally spent whole sessions on the boat doing nothing but trying to get healthier. Very realistic but bloody awful to play that way

I hope the new edition keeps the fantastic setting but just makes the mechanics are bit more player friednly

EN World Reviews

Even though I’ve played and enjoyed just about every edition of Dungeons & Dragons, with an exception to 4th, I’ve pretty much stayed out of the fray in regards to D&D clones. I’ve somewhat maintained the semblance of a semi-regular D&D Basic campaign (live game) for about two years, primarily relying on the Rules Cyclopedia, and occasionally mixing (and experimenting) in elements from games like HackMaster as well as more recently, Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Like any role-playing alchemist, I’ll never stop mixing. And since Mazes & Perils Deluxe Edition is a clone of Holmes Basic D&D, I’m eager to take a closer look.

This is the Free Trader Beowulf, calling anyone…. Mayday. Mayday…. We are under attack…. Main drive is gone… Turret number one not responding…. Mayday…. Losing cabin pressure fast calling anyone…. Please help…. This is the Free Trader Beowulf…. Mayday…. Bold explorers and brave travellers journey between the stars in Traveller the science fiction roleplaying game by Mongoose Publishing.

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